FlexRay is a communication protocol developed by a consortium of automotive manufacturers and semiconductor companies to provide a distributed control and communication system for automotive applications.
FlexRay systems comprise a number of nodes, each of which comprise a number of components that transmit many different types of information between each other. However, synchronising the information transmissions between these components is problematic. Attempts are ongoing to solve the problem of synchronising such transmissions.
US Patent application US20050198416 describes a variety of processing systems which include sending and receiving components communicating over a bus having first and second channels. Similarly, US Patent application US20050182884 describes a processing system with a sending component and a receiving component connected by a multiple address two-channel bus. However, in contrast with communications in a FlexRay system, the communication channel in both of these Applications is defined by an address on a single bus.
US Patent Application US20050289253 describes an apparatus for a multi-function direct memory access core. However, only one type of information is transferred within the DMA core (i.e. commands with data). Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,067 describes a staged, partitioned communication bus for interconnecting the ports of a multi-port bridge for a local area network. However, the communication bus is partitioned on a modular basis, not on the type of traffic transmitted thereon.